Election of 74 women to 18th Lok Sabha (LS) is a slight dip in women representation as 78 women were elected to 17th LS (14.4% representation).
Status of women representation in Legislature
- 9.7% of 797 women contestants won in 18th LS elections while in 17th LS elections, 10.74% of 726 women contestants won.
- Women’s representation in LS increased from 5% in first LS to its highest in 17th LS (14.4%).
- Presently, women members constitute 14.05% of Rajya Sabha members.
- Globally, share of women in national parliaments is 26.9%.
Significance of women representation:
- Women legislators perform better in their constituencies on economic indicators than their male counterparts.
- Accounting for around 50% population, legislative representation is fundamental to political empowerment.
- Women are less likely to be criminal and corrupt, more efficacious, and less vulnerable to political opportunism.
Challenges to women’s legislative representation:
- Societal Prejudices, male dominated political structures, and family obligations.
- Structural disadvantages: Election campaigns are costly, time-consuming and are marred by inappropriate commenting, hate speeches, abusive threats and muscle power.
- Internalised patriarchy: Women themselves are often influenced by patriarchal societal norms.
Steps taken for increasing women political representation
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